Travel is good for you: It deepens your knowledge, it teaches you history and,
most of all, it helps you understand your own self and culture. But when budgets
are tight and the world seems unstable, we all tend to cling to home, which
does little for our collective self-esteem, much less world peace. And even
if we’re all too nervous to stray far physically, we can still get out, philosophically
speaking — especially in Los Angeles, where a world of cultures, wilderness
and adventure can all be had within a couple hours’ drive. In this issue, GREG
GOLDIN sends you out to Southern California’s wild and threatened San
Onofre beach; STEVEN MIKULAN revisits the land of Basques, sheep and honky-tonk,
Bakersfield;
DAVID L. ULIN sees the Middle East on the
Carrizo Plain; RON ATHEY goes Brazilian at Black’s
Beach; DAVE SHULMAN finds a
waterfall you can walk to; and ERIN AUBRY KAPLAN gives a word of advice
to the politically sensitive cruise-ship
crowd. PLUS: Mariachi
Divas, planting
trees in the San Bernardinos, harmonizing world
peace, dining at a
Thai temple, Little
Tokyo’s contradictions, and a comic
by ALISON ELIZABETH TAYLOR.

—Judith Lewis, editor

 ILLUSTRATIONS BY MIKE LEE


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